as Sister Aloysius Beauvier in Doubt.
Her face framed by a nun’s bonnet, her
voice rendered into a low Bronx growl,
Streep is clearly utilizing every trick in
the Big Book of Acting here—all the
better to breathe life into a character
who is so sure of her eerie instincts
that she persists in accusing a popular
priest of child abuse, despite little
evidence. Streep paints a striking portrait of a woman not about to let doubt
get in the way of her convictions, be
they regarding religion, criminality,
or even appropriate Christmas music.
( The heretical “Frosty the Snowman,”
she seethes, “should be banned from
the airwaves.”)
WE ALSO LOVED: Frances McDormand in
Burn After Reading…Catherine Deneuve in
A Christmas Tale…Alfre Woodard in Tyler
Perry’s The Family That Preys…Annette
Bening in The Women.
Best Actor 50 and Over
Frank Langella, in Frost/Nixon
Clearly, director Ron Howard knew
exactly what he had in his leading
man. And so he had the surpassingly
good sense to simply stand back and
let the camera run for Frank Langella’s towering performance as Richard Nixon. Maddeningly pompous,
pitifully insecure, Langella’s Nixon
smolders with the legendary mix of
contradictions that defined the real
RN. The veteran actor reveals more of
Nixon than a library of biographies
ever could. Watch as he walks to
the interview set, realizing he has
no choice but to fess up to his role
in the Watergate cover-up, characteristically slouching but gradually,
imperceptibly, drawing his shoulders
back, pulling himself up to full height,
like a king to his execution. It’s a
performance that will rank with
George C. Scott’s Patton and Ben
Kingsley’s Gandhi.
WE ALSO LOVED: Mickey Rourke in The
Wrestler…Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino…
Chris Cooper in Married Life…Richard
Jenkins in The Visitor.
Best Supporting
Actor 50 and Over
Bill Irwin, in Rachel Getting Married
A powerful portrait of powerlessness,
Irwin’s father of the bride in Rachel
Getting Married is a heartbreaking look
at a man tortured by loss. A shattering
chapter in his past is inevitably brought
to the surface when his daughter Kym
(Anne Hathaway) is released from re-hab to come home for her sister’s nuptials. In director Jonathan Demme’s
freeform style, Irwin’s character tries
valiantly to tamp down his distress, but
his expressive face and subtly shifting
body language give him away. Still,
Irwin presides over the funniest scene
ever written about men’s nearly universal preoccupation with the one and
only correct way to load a dishwasher.
WE ALSO LOVED: Bill Murray in City
of Ember…John Malkovich in Burn After
Reading…Dennis Quaid in The Express…
Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia!
Best Supporting
Actress 50 and Over
Christine Baranski and
Julie Walters, in Mamma Mia!
We’ve never split this award before—
hope they don’t mind sharing—but
there’s no way to separate the stars
who play Meryl Streep’s best pals in
Mamma Mia! Baranski stops just short
of stealing the show with her brassy
broadsides. And while at first it seems a
mistake to entrust Walters with the signature ABBA song “Take a Chance on
Me,” what she lacks in pipes she more
than makes up for in panache.
WE ALSO LOVED: Kim Cattrall in Sex
and the City: The Movie…Bette Midler
in Then She Found Me…Debra Winger in
Rachel Getting Married…Cloris Leachman
in The Women.
Best Director 50 and Over
Gus Van Sant, Milk
For all his inspired casting decisions—
particularly the chameleonlike Sean
Penn in the title role as California’s
first gay man elected to major office—
BEST COMEDY FOR GROWNUPS
Ghost Town
BEST SCREEN WRI TER
J. Michael Straczynski, for Changeling
BEST MOVIE FOR GROWNUPS
WHO REFUSE TO GROW UP
Iron Man
Van Sant’s smartest move was to cast
the city of San Francisco as itself. The
actual Haight Street barbershop where
Milk’s campaign was born is rife with
subversive democracy in action. The
foyer of City Hall becomes an arch of
triumph. And when a candlelight vigil
illuminates the intersection of Market
and Castro streets, the locale seems to
sob gently with a sense of loss.
WE ALSO LOVED: Danny Boyle for
Slumdog Millionaire…Jonathan Demme
for Rachel Getting Married…Ron Howard
for Frost/Nixon…John Patrick Shanley
for Doubt.
